Movie review: Clooney's 'Suburbicon' a stinging satire

George Clooney directs and co-writes (with the Coen brothers) “Suburbicon,” a story that follows the violent aftermath of a home invasion in an idyllic suburban 1950s neighborhood.

It’s a tale of deceit and mayhem right out of the Coen brothers’ playbook. It’s also a stinging, socially conscious satire tackling race relations in lily white suburbia. But Clooney never successfully melds the two strands into a cohesive whole. It only solidifies how well Jordan Peele mixed surreal humor and harsh reality in the similarly themed “Get Out,” the recent horror hit dealing with racial exploitation in a white community.

Clad in short-sleeved, button-up white shirts and tortoise-shell glasses, Matt Damon stars as Gardner Lodge, the poster boy for 1950’s dads. Gardner is victimized in a home invasion by two goons (Glenn Fleshler and Alex Hassell). Gardner’s wife (Julianne Moore) dies and her sister (Moore, pulling double duty) moves in to mother Gardner’s son, Nicky, (Noah Jupe, terrific). They’re living the suburban dream until an insurance claims investigator (Oscar Isaac, hilarious) starts to poke around. The multifaceted Clooney, who directed gems like “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “The Ides of March,” does his best Coen brothers imitation, crafting dark, subtle humor out of human foibles.

You’ll LOL, but those giggles might not be enough to overcome some glaring shortcomings. Namely, the bipolar script, in which you can clearly tell the sections the Coens wrote and the parts Clooney and longtime writing partner Grant Heslov tacked on.

For his part, Damon strikes a solid balance between funny and serious in his woebegone character. He rides a too-small bicycle in one scene and takes a golf club to a guy’s head in another.

The plot shifts into murder-thriller territory with a growing body count. Clooney speaks to the hypocrisy of white middle-class America by juxtaposing it against that of the new black family’s experience in the neighborhood. The white characters each have an agenda more reprehensible than the next. Meanwhile, the new family, the Mayers, are simply out for a better life. And let’s just say they’re not welcomed with open arms, as neighbors put up fences and an angry mob from the Betterment Committee tries to run them out of town.

Clooney is lax in any real character development involving the Mayers. They have very little dialogue. Karimah Westbrook as the missus, makes the most out of a disturbing grocery store scene. Another bright spot is Gary Basaraba as Nicky’s bachelor uncle, Mitch, seemingly the only person who truly cares about the boy.

Clooney also gets an assist from Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood,” “Good Night, and Good Luck”), who bathes the sprawling neighborhood in bright suburban sunlight that casts an artificial aura around the smiley Stepford housewives perfectly coiffed and dressed. The set design evokes Eisenhower-era neighborhoods with two-story cookie-cutter homes, white picket fences, and pastel-green kitchen cabinets for all.

But because he’s trying to scream something SO important, Clooney only undercuts himself. What’s head-scratching is the whole tenor of the film – it abruptly flits between stories, making you feel like you’re watching two different movies.

Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.